Catholic doctors confront groups’ call for investigation of ‘gender-affirming care’ critics

The tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis in Assisi, Italy. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.

ACI Prensa Staff, May 28, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).
The news of the upcoming canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, the Italian teenager with a passion for computers and the Eu… […]

Mother Teresa and John Paul II, May 25, 1983. / Credit: L’Osservatore Romano

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2024 / 16:46 pm (CNA).

Today is the eighth anniversary of Mother Teresa’s canonization. Pope Francis declared her a saint on Sept. 4, 2016 — just over a dozen years after she was beatified by her friend and fellow saint, Pope John Paul II. 

St. Teresa of Calcutta, who was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, gained fame around the world for caring for the poorest of the poor and sharing Christ’s love with them. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order that carries on her work today around the world. 

St. John Paul II and Mother Teresa, two of the most famous and consequential Catholic saints of the 20th century, weren’t just friends. As followers of Christ, they complemented each other in profound ways, with Mother Teresa putting into practice so many of the Catholic teachings that John Paul eloquently taught. 

“Where John Paul provided the theological and intellectual foundation for understanding human dignity in the face of the great darkness of the 20th century — abortion, euthanasia, atheism, communism, and materialism — Mother Teresa was a living witness to what the pope was teaching,” the editors of the National Catholic Register noted in 2016. 

Though Mother Teresa was a decade older than John Paul, they both experienced significant milestones in their faith lives in 1946 — he was ordained a priest that year and Sister Teresa heard a “call within a call” to serve the poor on the streets of Calcutta. Throughout both of their lives, they were deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary and to the rosary. 

In 1986, the pope visited Mother Teresa’s hospice center, Nirmal Hriday, which she had founded in 1952 in the heart of the slums in Calcutta. Tens of thousands of sick and forgotten people, who would otherwise have perished on the streets, died a dignified death at the center over the decades. 

According to news reports, Pope John Paul was “visibly moved” and even disturbed by what he saw at the hospice, such that he was rendered speechless. He called Nirmal Hriday “a place that bears witness to the primacy of love.”

“Our human dignity comes from God … in whose image we are all made. No amount of privation or suffering can ever remove this dignity, for we are always precious in the eyes of God,” he said in a speech given outside the center.

In Nirmal Hriday, “the mystery of human suffering meets the mystery of faith and love,” the pope continued; there, people ask every day why God would allow such death and suffering.

“And the answer that comes, often in unspoken ways of kindness and compassion, is filled with honesty and faith: ‘I cannot fully answer all your questions; I cannot take away all your pain. But of this I am sure: God loves you with an everlasting love. You are precious in his sight. In him I love you too. For in God we are truly brothers and sisters,’” the pope said. 

Mother Teresa later described the day of the pope’s visit as “the happiest day of my life.” 

At that meeting and whenever they met afterward, John Paul would kiss the top of the diminutive nun’s head and offer her a blessing, while she fervently kissed his papal ring.

Mother Teresa died in 1997. At her beatification in 2003, an aging John Paul said: “I am personally grateful to this courageous woman, whom I have always felt beside me. Mother Teresa, an icon of the Good Samaritan, went everywhere to serve Christ in the poorest of the poor.”

“Let us praise the Lord for this diminutive woman in love with God, a humble Gospel messenger and a tireless benefactor of humanity. In her we honor one of the most important figures of our time. Let us welcome her message and follow her example,” the pope said of his friend.

“Virgin Mary, queen of all the saints, help us to be gentle and humble of heart like this fearless messenger of love. Help us to serve every person we meet with joy and a smile. Help us to be missionaries of Christ, our peace and our hope. Amen!”

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Washington D.C., May 2, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite Sudan’s recent compliance to U.S. guidelines, one expert thinks there’s not enough information to warrant a complete removal of sanctions against the country.  

“In the case of Sudan, the same cast of characters, the same power base that promotes a perverted and violent expression of Islam is still in power,” David Dettoni, senior adviser to the Sudan Relief Fund, told a congressional panel April 26.

“Look at Sudan’s ‘President.’ It is still Omar Bashir,” Dettoni said. “He and his power base are still intact and I do not think their fundamental belief system has changed.”

Dettoni recognized that reduced sanctions may have played a part in the “cease fire” in the South Kordofan and the Blue Nile State – areas Bashir had previously used criminal like tactics towards opposing forces.

However, he’s concerned that the U.S. Special Envoy currently elected to analyze Sudan’s improvements has not been to these areas in which saw the most bloodshed and tribulation. And because of this, he thinks there isn’t enough accurate information to determine if the country has met the criteria necessary for the sanctions removal.

Nearly a week before leaving office, President Barak Obama eased Sudan’s sanctions, allowing the country the ability to trade with U.S. firms. The sanctions would be further removed after five points of criteria were met. A report established by the Special Envoy in Sudan and South Sudan, will be expected to the given to President Donald Trump in June.

Dettoni suggested that Congress draft legislation to revise the sanctions, allowing for periods of modification thereafter.

During Omar Bashir’s rise to power, he issued the executions and imprisonment of many political leaders, journalists, and high ranking military officers. Teaming up with the National Islamic Front, he established Sharia, or Islamic Law, at a national level.

The New York Times cited the country as having “instituted one of the strictest Muslim fundamentalist social orders in the world,” in 1993 after eight terrorists had been detained in Paris with ties to Sudan – describing the country as a sort of breeding ground for Islamic extremists. The men had been suspected of planning and in process of carrying out a terrorist act in New York City. During his testimony, Dettoni also mentioned that Sudan in the 1990s was home to Al-Qaeda – the terrorist group responsible for bombing the Twin Towers on Sept.11, 2001.

The Sudanese civil wars, claiming nearly 2 million lives, were finally ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and what is now South Sudan was offered the possibility to vote for their secession.

However, other areas of the peace agreement were ignored by Bashir toward the Sudan People’s Liberation Army located in Sudan, and he continued scrimmages in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, areas straddling the border between both countries. The violence was notably significant in Abyei, located within the state of South Kordofan.

“In May 2011, Khartoum invaded Abyei, burning, looting, destroying, killing and forcing the removal of over 100,000 Ngok Dinka,” he said.

In order for the 20 year-long sanctions to be completely removed, the Obama administration issued five areas needed for improvement: “ceasing hostilities in Darfur and the Two Areas (South Kordofan and the Blue Nile), improving humanitarian access, ending negative interference in South Sudan, enhancing cooperation on counter-terrorism, and addressing the threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army.”

Dettoni acknowledged the recent improvements in areas regarding refugees, humanitarian access, and decreased violence in the states along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

He said 380,000 South Sudanese and an estimated 200,000 Eritreans have been given refuge in Sudanese camps, which he claimed to be “tough” but that at least Sudan has “allowed these very vulnerable and suffering people to have a form of refuge.”

However, he remains skeptical of the millions of Euros provided by the European Union to curve the inflow of illegal immigrants, known to bottleneck at Sudan. He proposed the money used to beef up Sudan’s border force may also be used to violently suppress the victims of years passed.

Dettoni also suggested the possibility that Bashir’s compliance with U.S. guidelines is being used “as leverage for political or other goals that they want to achieve” specifically “to loosen sanctions, gain respect, gain valuable foreign currency.”  

He requested President Donald Trump’s immediate action to publicly appoint a Special Envoy that would travel to and analyze South Kordofan and the Blue Nile State, and that the president should meet personally with Bashir and other African leaders.

Dettoni also asked President Trump to amend the previous executive order from the Obama administration or ask Congress to draw up legislation to limit Sudan’s sanctions, which would be reviewable every 180 days or annually. He suggests that the executive branch to draft a review in writing and be submitted to Congress and the president two months before the sanctions can be lifted in July.

[…]